In Search of the Invincibles in Europe

(Baonghean.vn) - If we only count the top 5 European leagues, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and France, there are 2 teams. If we count the whole of Europe, there are 7 teams that have not known defeat.

Most European leagues have passed half of the season and are preparing for the winter break (except for the English league). One by one, the strong teams have fallen, first Inter Milan with a 1-3 loss to Udinese, then Atletico Madrid lost 0-1 to Espanyol. The number of undefeated teams can be counted on the fingers, except for Apollon Limassol (Cyprus Championship), the remaining teams are all famous teams.

The Invincible

To date, Man City and Barcelona are the two giants in the top 5 European national championships that have not known defeat. Man City has just extended its record winning streak in the Premier League to 17 and is full of hope to catch up and surpass Bayern's European record of 19 consecutive wins - when Pep was still in charge.

In the first half of the 2017/18 Premier League season, only Everton got points from Man City in a match where they had a player sent off. Pep's men won all 18 matches, earned 55 points and scored 60 goals. They also just became the first team in Premier League history to score 100 goals in a year.

Man City is challenging all of Europe. Photo: Internet

In La Liga, Barca won 14, drew 3, more than the second-placed team.Atletico Madrid9 points and 14 points more than arch-rival Real Madrid (played 1 more match). Los Blaugrana have only conceded 7 goals after 17 rounds. They just had a convincing 3-0 victory at Santiago Bernabeu, making Real's Christmas more difficult than ever. If coach Zidane and his students cannot stop Messi at home, then I wonder which La Liga team can do this?

If we look at Europe as a whole, there are still 4 national championships with clubs that have not lost, that is the Portuguese League, both FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon are side by side on the rankings with the same number of wins, draws and points.

FC Porto are ranked higher due to a better win-loss difference than Sporting Lisbon (39:6 and 32:9). Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian Premier League with 15 wins and 5 draws are 12 points ahead of second-placed Split. Next is Plzen in the Czech Republic with 15 wins and 1 draw, 14 points ahead of second-placed team. Apollon Limassol are only fourth but are the only unbeaten team in the Cypriot First Division.

Champions League advantage

Of the top five European leagues, Serie A has the most exciting title race, with just five points separating first and third place. The other four leagues all have large gaps between first and second: the Premier League 13 points, La Liga 9 points, Bundesliga 11 points and the French Championship 9 points.

Although no longer undefeated, PSG (lost 1 match) and Bayern (lost 2 matches) are also in impressive form. The early creation of a large gap in domestic tournaments allows these teams to focus more on the Champions League front. Of course, because of that, the chance of winning the championship will be much greater than the remaining teams.

With the easiest opponent in the knockout round, Basel, Man City has risen to become the number 1 candidate for the 2017/18 Champions League title with odds of 3/1 (bet 1 win 3). Right behind Man "Blue" is Bayern Munich. "The Gray Tigers" can be considered the luckiest second-place team when they drew Besiktas. The odds of "The Gray Tigers" are 9/2.

PSG, the team that was considered by bookmakers at the beginning of the season as the strongest candidate for the championship, has dropped to 3rd place with odds of 5/1 (bet 1 win 5). The draw of luck has been sparse for the home team at the Parc des Princes to face Real Madrid. However, with stars like Neymar, Cavani or Mbappe in the squad, PSG's chances of advancing are still very bright.

Messi and his teammates have played very well in La Liga, but in the first knockout round, the Catalan team will have to face an extremely difficult challenge named Chelsea. Therefore, European bookmakers only rank Barca as the 4th candidate with odds of 15/2.

An Thanh